Head-mounted device uses deep brain stimulation to treat epilepsy
A 13-year-old has become the first patient in the UK to participate in a clinical trial using deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat epilepsy.
Surgeons at GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital) mounted a rechargeable device to his skull and attached it to electrodes deep in the brain to reduce seizure activity.
According to GOSH, this is the first UK clinical trial measuring this type of treatment for children with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, and involved multiple teams from research and development, surgery, nursing, neurology, imaging, anaesthetics, neurophysiology and engineering.
Since the procedure, Oran’s daytime seizures have decreased by 80 per cent.
The CADET (Children’s Adaptive Deep brain stimulation for Epilepsy Trial) pilot will now recruit three additional patients, before 22 patients take part in a further trial funded by GOSH Charity and LifeArc.
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In a statement, Martin Tisdall, consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at GOSH and Honorary Associate Professor at UCL, said: “Every single day we see the life-threatening and life-limiting impacts of uncontrollable epilepsy. It can make school, hobbies or even just watching a favourite TV show utterly impossible.
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